LIFE LESSONS “Once you know what you’re doing, it’s sort of too late.”

Nick Lowe is a rare creature, a punk rock founding father who has endured and evolved gracefully. As singer and principal songwriter in British pub rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz, he paved the way for the punk revolution, and later released Jesus of Cool (released as Pure Pop For Now People in the US), his 1978 solo debut, a classic of the new wave era. Lowe never stopped recording and, in recent years, he has crafted an exquisite series of albums swathed in retro sounds of country and soul.

In addition to making his own music (including the worldwide hit “Cruel To Be Kind”), Lowe has produced landmark recordings for other acts, including the Damned’s “New Rose” (regarded as the first British punk rock single) and Elvis Costello’s first five albums. Lowe’s songs have been interpreted by many artists, including Johnny Cash, whose reading of “The Beast In Me” served as the centerpiece of Cash’s American Recordings album.

Nick Lowe plays the Narrows Center for the Arts on October 15. We recently talked with him by phone.

ON YOUR RECENT ALBUMS, YOU BLEND COUNTRY, BLUES, JAZZ AND POP INTO A STYLE THAT COULD BE PLAYED BY A SOPHISTICATED COUNTRY ARTIST LIKE CHARLIE RICH OR A MATURE R&B SINGER LIKE JAMES CARR. HAS BLURRING THOSE STYLES BEEN A CONSCIOUS PROCESS? Yes, I think so. There was a time in the ’80s when I was thinking how I could develop a style which would take me into middle age and beyond. I’d been a pop star for a short time in the ’70s, and after that was over I thought, “I’ve done pretty well here, and if my career is over now, I could go back into civilian life and feel quite pleased.” But I didn’t feel as if I’d done anything really good up till that point. I did think taking classic pop music writ-ing styles and mixing them together could be something that I could use. And it has paid off quietly. Untold riches haven’t been mine, but that was never my aim.

YOUR MOST RECENT ALBUM IS TITLED AT MY AGE. UNLIKE SOME ACTS, YOU DON’T HAVE THE URGE TO RECREATE YOUR YOUTH. I see some of my contemporaries who are compelled to relive their moment of fame over and over again, and that’s something that I was absolutely determined not to do. To have to behave as if it’s punk rock heaven so that people can relive their youth through you is an awful situation to be in. So I wanted to try and find a way of using the fact that I was getting older as an advantage over younger acts, who might even be saying, “Boy, I can’t wait to be as old as that Nick Lowe.” That would be really something.

YOU PRODUCED THE PRETENDERS’ FIRST SINGLE. THIRTY YEARS LATER, CHRISSIE HYNDE SANG ON YOUR SONG “PEOPLE CHANGE.” DID YOU HAVE HER IN MIND WHEN YOU WERE WRITING IT? No, actually. We had three or four goes at recording that song, and it never really worked. It sounded a bit like a breakfast cereal commercial at one point, and that’s not bad, either, but it wasn’t quite good enough. Eventually I went to see Chrissie on another matter. And I happened to say, “I have this song that I’m having a bit of trouble with.” I showed it to her. She was very forthright about it, and made me throw out half of the song. She said, “I’ll come and sing on it. Make sure you don’t mess it up.”

A casket gets some airtime Bert Harlow, woodworker and founder of the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, Massachusetts, made his own casket a few years ago. But he figured the pine box should get some use before he was nailed into it.

The articulate melodic eloquence of Bill Frisell Many of us have embarrassing moments in our past, but when one of the hippest jazz dudes around admits to donning a leisure suit and playing in a show band, you prepare for a wince on the seismic level.

XL American Gothic was a subterranean shithole bar known for its existentially tortured clientele and extreme indifference to the minimum drinking age.

Hit the streets Action all over on FRIDAY (the 1st): Legendary N'awlins ensemble the DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND blows through the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall Reeve (508.324.1926), MOGA whips up the waterfront jams at the Ocean Mist in Matunuck (401.782.3740), and don't forget TORN SHORTS playing the Apartment (401.228.7222).

Three Tall Pines get it right on All That’s Left Bluegrass/Americana quartet Three Tall Pines recently released their second album, All That's Left , the follow-up to their 2008 debut, Short While Ago (both available at iTunes and cdbaby.com).

Seven days a week On THURSDAY (the 19th), it's last call for Springfield, MA rhymer TABLEEK and PVD duo DIRTYDURDIE at Fête (congrats on the Best Hip-Hop Venue win in our readers' poll last week); dial 401.383.1112.

Reality bites At some point or another, the greatest artists are pegged as oddballs, weirdos, freaks. Being a great artist does mean going out on a limb.

Must be Marie I’ve always loved Sydney Bourke’s contribution to Satellite Lot’s Second Summer album, and it’s great to see a band built around her excellent lead vocals with the indie-pop Marie Stella.

BECK ON BECK | July 16, 2014 "Every song has its own kind of life, its own gestation, its own way of working itself out."

STAYING POSITIVE | April 09, 2014 "When we started this band, we wanted to build something that was very inclusive."

XL | August 15, 2012 American Gothic was a subterranean shithole bar known for its existentially tortured clientele and extreme indifference to the minimum drinking age.

'PEOPLE WANTED SOMETHING HONEST' | July 28, 2010 In a world that's changing at the speed of light, the Gaslight Anthem reaches into the past to forge classic elements into a timeless rock and roll sound.

FLANAGAN’S EMPIRE | February 05, 2010 Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.